Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To chirp as a bird.
- To emit a mournful sound, as birds collected together before a storm.
- To utter as with a chirp.
- n. Clamor; confused noise.
- n. Specifically, the mournful sound emitted before a storm by birds collected together.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Noise; din; esp.; confused noise, clamor, or hum of many voices, notes of birds, or the like.
- v. obsolete To chirp or to make a mournful cry, as a bird.
Etymologies
- Compare chirp and Anglo-Saxon cyrman, cirman, to cry out. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“No sound came to break the quiet of the evening hour save the monotonous plaint of a whippoorwill in a distant brake, and the ceaseless chirm of insects among the leafy boughs and down in the ferns that clustered on the knolls round about.”
“To Captivate, kap'ti-vlte.v. a. To take prifoner, to bring into bondage; to chirm, to fubduc.”
Internet Archive: A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chirm’.
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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Confusually
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baffle, farrago, confound, befuddle, daze, disorient, discombobulate, stupefy, perplex, mystify, bewilder, boggle and 134 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
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marmarind's list
tatterdemalian, gamine, haptic, clapter, chirm, bibelot, glabella
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Things Avian
Wordies relating to birdies. :-)
calidrid, corvid, avian, avifauna, beak, brood, aerie, altricial, albumen, winged, wattle, covey and 217 more...
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The Other Side of Silence
A sound garden.
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. --Walt Whitmantin cry, chark, gride, scroop, crepitation, stridulation, swazzle, death-ruckle, cronk, rumble, borborygmus, crowling and 165 more...
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Gossip Column
What's the scuttlebutt? Inspired by an OUP blog post.
clacket, chatterbox, tonguester, prattle-basket, whitter-whatter, gabble, chelp, chirm, tittle-tattle, bribble-babble, snatter, psilology and 35 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chirm.
reesetee See chavish. The collective noun "charm," referring to certain flocks of birds, apparently derives from this word. Jan 4, 2008